Rustic farm furniture has made a comeback in recent years. While this type of furniture can be quite expensive to buy, even those with limited woodworking abilities can construct some pieces. Rustic farm tables are particularly easy to build.
When considering the idea of building your own rustic furnishings keep in mind that these types of furnishings were originally built during times when resources were severely limited. Not only did the homeowner have a limited choice in materials, they typically had only a few hand tools at their disposal and may or may not have had any real woodworking skills to speak of.
In times past, a farm table might have been constructed using small sapling trees for the legs and planks hewn from hand-felled and split timber. Wooden pegs or even rawhide lashing might have been used in place of nails and screws to hold the various pieces of the furniture together. Modern pieces can benefit from such design considerations as well. While it is not likely that the typical homeowner will fell their own trees and hew out the planks, the piece can be constructed to look like that was the case.
When choosing materials for a rustic farm table, less polished materials are definitely preferable to commercially finished lumber. If you have access to rough-milled wood it makes an excellent choice for rustic projects. Alternatively, you might be able to use wood salvaged from old farm buildings or even shipping containers to get that hand hewed look! Finishes might include some sanding to remove splinters, the selective use of stains, and distressing techniques designed to rough up the wood and give it an old appearance.
Kitchen tables all exhibit basic construction characteristics. The easiest to build are the four-legged types. Legs can be made of 4 x 4s or even short pieces of saplings as the pioneers did. If saplings are chosen they can be used with the bark on or peeled to give a more finished appearance. Freshly cut poplar saplings are very easy to peel in the spring but care must be taken to carefully dry the newly peeled wood in an area that insures good airflow around the pieces. This will discourage molding. If mold does develop, however, it can be easily removed using a weak bleach solution.
Whether you choose to use saplings or 4 x 4s for the legs of your rustic kitchen table, care must be taken to make the legs equal lengths and to cut the bottom ends off smoothly and evenly so that the table legs will sit flat on your kitchen floor. Cut two pairs of horizontal supports for you table from 2 x 4 or larger wood. One pair will be cut to a length that will match the length of your table and the other pair will be cut to length that will match the table’s width. These pieces will ultimately serve as the four horizontal edges where the planks that form the tabletop will be secured.
Position two of the legs parallel to one another on the floor at a distance that equates to the finished length of your table. Using either nails or screws; connect the tops of the legs with one of the longest horizontal supports that you cut above. Use the second horizontal piece from that pair to connect the tops of the other pair of legs. Make sure to carefully line up the ends of the horizontal pieces with the outside edges of the legs and keep them perfectly level. Allow the top edges of the horizontal pieces to project just over the ends of the legs so that the ends of the legs will not interfere with the attachment of the pieces that will ultimately form the tabletop. Enlisting the help of a friend or family member, stand these two pairs of legs as they will be positioned in the final table and use the shorter horizontal pieces to connect them together.
You should now have a freestanding frame. All that remains in the completion of the construction of your rustic farm table is to attach the planks that will form the tabletop. Simply position them side by side and nail or screw them in place. If you’ve decided to stain your table or to distress its finish you can do so now. Finally, touch up the nail or screw heads with a bit of wood putty and your table will be almost indistinguishable from rustic style antiques completed decades ago.
